AssemblyAI vs Manus Pricing (2026)
How do these two stack up on price? Here's what each one costs, what you get, and where the value sits.
| AssemblyAI | Manus | |
|---|---|---|
| Starts at | Custom | $20/mo |
| Number of plans | 2 | 3 |
| Free plan | — | |
| Free trial | — | |
| Pricing model | usage-based | usage-based |
Pay as you go
- Universal-3.5 Pro ($0.21/hr)
- Universal-2 ($0.15/hr)
- Universal-3.5 Pro Realtime ($0.45/hr)
- Universal-Streaming ($0.15/hr)
- Universal-Streaming Multilingual ($0.15/hr)
- Sync API ($0.45/hr)
- Voice Agent API ($4.50/hr)
- Speaker Diarization ($0.02/hr pre-recorded, $0.12/hr realtime)
- Medical Mode ($0.15/hr)
- Keyterms Prompting
- Prompting ($0.05/hr)
- Speaker Identification ($0.02/hr)
- Translation ($0.06/hr)
- Custom Formatting ($0.03/hr)
- Entity Detection ($0.08/hr)
- Sentiment Analysis ($0.02/hr)
- Auto Chapters ($0.08/hr)
- Key Phrases ($0.01/hr)
- Topic Detection ($0.15/hr)
- Summarization ($0.03/hr)
- Profanity Filtering ($0.01/hr)
- PII Audio Redaction ($0.05/hr)
- PII Text Redaction ($0.08/hr)
- Content Moderation ($0.15/hr)
- LLM Gateway
- No minimum commitments
- No credit card required to start
Custom
- Custom rate limits
- Enhanced concurrency
- Enterprise-grade flexibility
- Volume-based pricing
- Custom starting concurrency limits
Starter
- 300 refresh credits everyday
- 4,000 credits per month
- In-depth research for everyday tasks
- Professional websites for standard output
- Insightful slides for regular content
- Task scaling with Wide Research
- Early access to beta features
- 20 concurrent tasks
- 20 scheduled tasks
Plus
- 300 refresh credits everyday
- 8,000 credits per month
- In-depth research with self-set usage
- Professional websites for changing needs
- Insightful slides for steady creation
- Wide Research scaled to your chosen plan
- Early access to beta features
- 20 concurrent tasks
- 20 scheduled tasks
Pro
- Free Cloud Computer
- 300 refresh credits everyday
- 40,000 credits per month
- In-depth research for large-scale tasks
- Professional websites with data analytics
- Insightful slides for batch production
- Wide Research for sustained heavy use
- Early access to beta features
- 20 concurrent tasks
- 20 scheduled tasks
AssemblyAI vs Manus FAQ
- Which one is cheaper?
- One or both use custom pricing, so it depends on your specific needs.
- Can I use either one for free?
- AssemblyAI has a free plan. Manus doesn't — you'll need to pay from day one.
- How do they charge?
- Both use a usage-based model, so the comparison is straightforward — it comes down to features and limits at each price point.
- Which one is a better deal?
- Depends on what you need. AssemblyAI: They're positioning as the developer-friendly, API-first alternative to Deepgram and Rev AI — competitive on price at scale but differentiated by the breadth of AI features (LLM Gateway, multichannel, etc.). The AWS Marketplace listing signals they're actively chasing enterprise procurement budgets. Manus: Sitting at $20 entry with a $200 ceiling, Manus positions itself mid-to-premium for an AI agent tool, betting that task automation justifies a steeper price than typical productivity SaaS. The jump from $40 to $200 leaves a gap that pushes serious usage straight into enterprise territory via the separate Team plan.
Keep tabs on both.
We'll monitor pricing changes for AssemblyAI and Manus and let you know when something moves.